After ten years of discussions and negotiations between the owners, NFLPA and Jacksonville and London team officials, commissioner Roger Goodell finally gets his long-awaited wish: an NFL team in Europe. The London Monarchs (formerly the Jacksonville Jaguars) will play across the pond at Wembley Stadium in London, beginning in 2025.

Goodell, in his second term as commissioner, has pounded the table for a team in Europe since 2015, when the Jacksonville Jaguars, struggling financially, agreed to play three games a year in London. The move makes sense for the Jaguars as a franchise, especially considering the only other NFL franchise that did not regularly sell out its games, San Diego, now fills at capacity weekly in Los Angeles’ state-of-the-art stadium. It also benefits the NFL, a league that breaks the ice in terms of expanding their product to Europe. The NFL has grown increasingly popular there, and fan support is not expected to be an issue. Last season, more than 100,000 fans packed Wembley stadium for all three Jaguars games to make a statement to league officials, demanding that the deal needs to get done.

After years of dealing with all the necessary intricacies and logistics of moving a franchise to Europe, including mandatory passports (paid for by the NFL), currency transfers (the NFL now pays 1/15 of all NFL player salaries in euros), game timing (all of the Monarch’s games will be played at 6 pm there, which is noon in the US), and convincing players to play there (offering financial incentives based on experience), the NFL and NFLPA finally overcame the last obstacle: traveling.

In order to convince players that they won’t be constantly traveling across the pond throughout the season, London will be playing its nine road games (the NFL expanded the regular season to 18 games in 2019) in 3-4 week road trips. This means London players will be staying in each continent for about 25 day spans, lessening the traveling.

On the other hand, the NFL had to lessen the burden for the other 31 teams as well. To minimize traveling miles that naturally comes when traveling abroad, the NFL has agreed to realign its divisions. Gone are traditional AFC / NFC standards and some classic divisional rivalries, as the league’s realignment approach is purely geographical. The new divisions are as followed:

AFC West – Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks

AFC South – Washington Redtails, Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Bengals

AFC North – Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams, Cleveland Browns, Indianapolis Colts

AFC East – Philadelphia Eagles, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills

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NFC West – Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Denver Broncos

NFC South – New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins

NFC North – Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears

NFC East – London Monarchs, New York Giants, New York Jets, New England Patriots

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Commissioner Goodell is excited about the new instate rivalries that will naturally ensue with the league’s new division format. Logical future rivalries include Pittsburgh/Philadelphia, New York Jets/New York Giants (who share a stadium), Dallas/Houston, Kansas City/St. Louis, and San Francisco/Oakland (the battle of the Bay).

Goodell cites that the NFL wanted to maintain some of the traditional rivalries that have held strong for the last two decades. Note that Atlanta and New Orleans are in the same division. Seattle and San Francisco will continue to play each other twice a year. And of course, Baltimore and Pittsburgh were “inseparable.” The NFC North remains completely unchanged.

The London Monarchs will also be awarded with the first overall pick in the 2025 AND 2026 drafts, regardless of how the team finishes (after the Jaguars went 5-13 season in 2024, they could use it).

It’s been a long decade filled with change for the NFL. From banning kickoffs after scoring plays (teams automatically start on their 25 yard line after scoring plays, only kicking off to start the first and second half), to mandating a softer outer layer on helmets, to imposing a 1-game suspension for flopping after so-called helmet-to-helmet fits and ticky-tacky pass interference calls (players have begun taking advantage of the NFL’s strict safety rules), to expanding the regular season to 18 games (2 preseason games) and finally culminating with moving a franchise to London, England. A lot has changed with the game we love, but one thing remains certain: regardless of whether fans, the media and players disapprove of the changes…people continue to watch what may become known in Europe as “the new beautiful game.”

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NOTE: This article is simply a prediction of what could be the future of the NFL. It is written as if the breaking news occurred in 2025. None of what’s posted is actually true or based on any reports.

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*Photo Credit: Chris Murphy, CNN.com

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Categories: NFL Feature Stories